Waking Up in Vegas
by charlotte818
Summary: When Lenny's best friend Doug, is getting married, they head to Vegas for a bachelor party. Problems arise though when no one can remember a thing from the night before. It's a race against time as they try to find the missing groom before its too late.


For as long as I can remember, its always been the four of us. We were as think as thieves. Stu, Doug, Phil, and I. Since then we've certainly had our fair share of of crazy situations. But I do have to say, this one took the cake. During our elementary years, we had been dragged down to the principal's office more times that any of us could count because of our tendency to do dumb things. It usually came down to the same formula every time though. Phil gets it running with one of his _great_ ideas, then Stu would take over with the planning of said idea, I would gather materials, blue prints or anything else that we could possibly need for it, while Doug was always the peace keeper. In other words, making sure we didn't kill each other before the day was out. After all that there was only one thing left to do. Execute it and watch it unfold. Of course it was usually here when everything went _wrong_. Numerous failed attempts have resulted in:

Two gashes, three broken bones, five sprains, seven shiners, and eighteen consecutive times where one of my three other comrades have been sacked in the balls. Not to mention the hundreds of bruises, scrapes, scratches, tellings off by figures of authority, and all around just taking a beating to our egos. But frankly, given the chance to go back and change it all, I don't think any of us would change it. Hell, if it wasn't for the mischievous streak that we all seem to share, we wouldn't have even met.

_A ten year old Lena walks down the hallway of Emerson Elementary in a baby blue skirt and a frilly short sleeve, button down. She's fidgeting constantly, like she's uncomfortable. As she approaches the cafeteria, she's nervous. Its her first day at a new school, and how the day goes could completely effect her life for the next four years. Entering, she sees Tiffany, a girl from her class that was nice enough to talk to her earlier, and figures it would be a good place to sit._

_Lena picks up her pace as she sees theres only one spot left next to the seemingly friendly Tiffany. Failing to notice the chair leg thats sticking out across from her. Her foot catches the leg and Lena goes sprawling with her barely touched lunch flying into the air. By now all heads had turned towards the poor girl with pigtails on the floor. But thats not what seals her fate. The double fudge pudding that was suppose to be today's dessert, goes from the tray to an unsuspecting boys lap._

_The boy, Philip Wenneck, paused in the middle of his speech on the latest Dodger's game, to look down at what had become of his faded blue jeans, and then turned his gaze to the girl in front of him, who had since got up off the floor and started a mantra of 'I'm sorry' and other apologies._

_Phil, ignoring the persistent girl, reached over and grabbed a friend's peanut butter and jelly sandwich, pulled the two halves apart and smeared the insides all over the girl's face, effectively shutting her up._

_Lena's jaw dropped. Had she not spent the last thirty seconds explaining that it was an accident and that she didn't mean it? Looking back at the boy she noticed he now had a very satisfied smirk on his face. Her gaze hardened. Okay, now she was mad. Taking hold of the first thing her hand found, which happened to be a handful of some other boy's spaghetti, she threw it right at his face._

_A few tables down, Stewart Price was busy at work on his science project when he was suddenly bombarded with tomato sauce and pasta. Looking up from his now ruined work he saw a bunch of wide eyed people gazing back at him, as if waiting for him to make the next move. Now normally he was not one to engage in the throwing of food or even any trouble at all, but he had spent all week on that project, and that just crossed the line. Taking hold of his cup of apple sauce he got up and move towards who he guessed were the guilty party. A boy with pudding on his pants and a girl with peanut butter on her face. Moving towards the boy because he had been told by his mother to treat girls with respect, he threw his apple sauce at him. What Stu wasn't counting on was the boy ducking out of the way and it hitting the back of another boys head._

_Doug Billings was never one for conflict, but when he felt the slime of apple sauce down the back of neck, he couldn't help it. Spinning around with his carton of milk in his hand he threw it toward the first face that he saw. There was a domino effect after that. Food started flying everywhere. People dove under tables to take cover and held their lunch trays over their heads._

_The fight went on for several minutes until the only people brave enough to say standing were the four that started it all. Continuing in their game until Lena froze. Stu stopped too and looked at her with a curious gaze. Following her line of sight he stiffened. Doug as well had noticed the large figure that was now looking down at them with an incredibly displeased eye. Finally, the lack of movement caught Phil's eye and he stopped, puzzled at what was wrong. Seeing the shadow looming over him, he turned around slowly to meet the angry gaze of their Principal, Mr. Varner. Phil let out a small sheepish chuckle._

_Mr. Varner simply pointed in the direction of his office. The four dragging their feet all the way there, complied. _

_Sitting on chair's outside 's office, Phil waited with the other three to see what the verdict was. Never one for waiting he attempted to start a conversation._

_"So... You new here or something?" He tried. The girl, who was sandwiched between him and Stu, looked up at him, surprised. Her eyes widened as she took in the incredible blue ones staring back at her._

_"I... I guess." Was her timid reply._

_"That makes sense. I mean, I've never seen you before" This time the voice came from Stu as he tried to be friendly with the girl._

_"That was pretty brave though." Phil said, the slight admiration coming through in his voice._

_"Wha... what... what do you mean?" She asked, curious but still a little nervous. _

_"What you did back there." Doug added, finally joining the conversation. At her confused look Stu elaborated. _

_"You know, actually throwing food back instead of just running off and going to cry somewhere."_

_"Is that what you expected me to do?" She asked, directing the question more to Phil then the others. He shrugged, "Kinda." He added as an after thought. "I'm Phil by the way."_

_"Helena, but it's stupid." Phil seemed to think about it for a second then said:_

_"Well, what if we make it shorter?"_

_"Yeah, like my name is Stewart, but everyone calls me Stu." Doug nodded agreeing and then added his example too._

_"Yeah and I'm Doug but it's short for Douglas, which is stupid too."_

_Lena smiled at that, "Thanks"_

_"Alright, alright, how about... Lenny. There, that works!"_

_Lenny... she liked the sound of that. She looked at the boys around her, "It's Perfect"_

Thinking back to that day, I can't help but smile. That year, I gained three new friends, and even though they were boys, it didn't change a thing. So now that we were in the middle of the desert trying for the life of us to remember what the hell we did last night, well... it was one of those times where yes, we did wish we had never met.


End file.
